Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission

This timeline allows you to view the critical events that led up to the financial crisis, as well as what happened during the crisis itself. To see the events on the timeline, click on the dots below. For more context, use the pull-down box at the left to view major economic indicators over time. Many terms used in this timeline are defined in the site’s Glossary section.

Newsroom

Conclusions

The Commission concluded that this crisis was avoidable—the result of human actions, inactions, and misjudgments. Warnings were ignored. “The greatest tragedy would be to accept the refrain that no one could have seen this coming and thus nothing could have been done. If we accept this notion, it will happen again.”